On the First Day of Christmas

Today marks both the official 12 days before Christmas countdown as well as the beginning of the 12 Days Before Christmas posting spree here at the OSS. Over the next 12 days, your favorite blogging foursome will strive to bring you some of the best Christmas shopping ideas/tips to help alleviate some of the tension that holiday shopping inevitably places upon all of us. Now I do realize that many of you have already completed your shopping, but many others (including myself) have only just begun. So with that in mind I bring you Day #1...


Amazon's Free Lunch Program

One of the most ubiquitous phrases used in public education is that there is no such as thing as a free lunch; with the basic idea being that everything comes with a price. Well, thanks to the likes of Amazon's Affiliate Program that idea has been stretched to it's absolute limit... at least for those of us who feel obligated to thoroughly research every major purchase.

The basic premise of this program is that affiliates (websites, blogs, etc...) recieve a percentage of all purchases made through their referrals. And what this means to you and I is that we can get paid for taking the time to write a referral or post a link to a product that we like, enjoy, or think would be worthwhile. You could even start a blog with the sole purpose of putting up links to some of the top selling items online.

Here's how the program works, let's say you have a book lover in the family? Well perhaps they'd enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's latest work "Outliers" detailing (among other things) how luck and one's natural environment can predispose each of us for greatness:




Have a teenager living with you at the moment? I realize that another video game system may be the last thing you want to buy, but it's a safe assumption that Rockband 2 for the Xbox 360 is probably on their list:




Or maybe you are shopping for a guys' guy who really wants nothing more than to simply watch NFL games on a 46 inch flat-screen TV while checking his fantasy football stats:





The program requires nothing more than people shopping as the would otherwise, with the only added step of clicking on the referral links above. The point I'm making with this initial entry is to raise awareness to the fact that the internet now provides those who are willing to put in the extra effort to receive a reward for your time and effort.

During tough economic times like we're in at the moment, isn't it nice to think that you could receive a reward simply for telling others what products are worth buying this Christmas season? So with that in mind, check back here over the next 11 days and hopefully you will find something that tickles your fancy.

Merry Christmas!